Friday, February 18, 2005

Ramiro Join(ed) One Club, Rejoins Another

After learning that Ramiro Mendoza was re-acquired by the yanks, I thought about how he, Babe Ruth, and a handful of other guys are the only ones who won a World Series with both the Red Sox and yankees. I don't know why it took me until now to think of this, since he joined that club the moment the Sox won. But on SoSH a few minutes ago, I was reading the thread about Mendoza, and someone else pointed it out, too. Like going back to the yanks put him on the list with Ruth. It's weird how we both initially thought that way. Maybe the fact that he's going back there makes you realize, Oh yeah, he was on the yanks before, he's got a ring with both teams. But I think we knew he was on the yanks, as many of us suspected he never really left them. Oh, and speaking of rings, when I read that the ring ceremony might not be on Opening Day against the yanks, I got really pissed for five seconds--then I realized, the flag will still go up, it would still rule without the actual rings getting handed out. But it looks like it will happen, rings and all, so, whatever, it will be a sweet day either way. One of the sweetest ever created by any deity or explosion in history.

And that's all I can find. We're talking players only here. Let me know if you have any more, or if any of this is wrong. It's the best I could do. Retrosheet and the Baseball Almanac helped me immensely.

Did you know that the day the Red Sox last won the World Series before 2004 was 9/11 (in that glorious year 1918)? I don't think I knew that.

And did you know that, like this year, the Red Sox and yanks played in each other's home openers the year after the last time the Sox won it all? In 1919, the Sox won the opener at the Stadium (a one-game series, but they also played three exhibition games there, it appears), then lost the first two of the first series at Fenway, but won game three with Ruth.

And the time before that, 1917, following the '16 title, they did it again, with the Sox winning the yanks home opener with Ruth, and winning the Fenway opener against the yanks, with, yes, Ruth.

In '16, following the '15 title, they didn't play each other's home openers, but the Sox, behind, again, Ruth, did win the first matchup of the season, at yankee Stadium.